How They Live
by AndCallMeFortune
Summary: Various happenings of various students. More an explanation of how characters go about their daily lives rather than any sort of real action or anything.
1. Faye Morgana

The night air felt cool on a fair girl's bare feet and back. Her black hood was drawn up, covering her light blonde hair, styled in a curt, off white pixie cut, preventing stagnant breezes from chilling her. The drapery of her needlessly long, yet mostly featureless, hoodie she wore fluttered carelessly as it flowed down to the back of her knees as she strolled through the grounds of Beacon, long past the time where students flitted between classes in a nosy bustle. It was quiet, dark, and exactly the thing the girl needed after a long day of classes and homework.

Faye Morgana continued walking, embracing the rough stones with her feet as she passed. She had always hated shoes, as they made her feel trapped, or at least less free. The freedom of unhindered movement and absolute silence was what led her to her current past time, tracing unknown patterns through well worn paths at, she double checked her scroll to confirm, two in the morning. Her teammates made it explicitly clear that she was fine in doing so as long as she came in quietly. Pacing in between sporadic street lights, she took in the darkness and breathed several long sighs of simple pleasure. She did this almost every day, uninterrupted by random noise, pointless conversations of passerby, and the music that usually accompanied her during the day.

At least, until the girl strolling heard crying.

Faye's silent stroll was interrupted by the sounds of sobbing and sporadic chokes. Led by a strong feeling of common decency, she drew closer to the source of the noise and looked for the maker. She found herself standing before a bench, just off the sidewalk. Sitting at one end was a girl, head covered by long, pink hair and face buried in her hands, shaking. Faye thought to herself, and concluded that she had no idea who this girl was; she had never seen her before in any of her classes, at any point wandering through the city, or at any of the various social events her teammate perpetrated. Wordlessly, she sat on the other end of the bench and removed her hood from her head to expose her soft face and placed her previously pocketed hands on her lap. She waited until the tears gradually slowed and the girl became aware of her presence.

"You doing alright? I always expected to need these if I ever found someone out at this hour," Faye proclaimed, motioning to the dumbbell-like shapes hanging on either side of her hips.

The girl turned her head towards the speaker, somewhat confused. Between coughs, she lowered her hands, revealing puffy cheeks and red eyes. Tears still clung to her eyelashes.

"Wh... What?"

"I asked if you're alright," Faye responded in a friendly tone.

She calmed down slightly at the casual response. She wiped her eyes and looked almost agape at her early morning companion.

"What's it matter to you?" the pink haired girl questioned, throwing her head back, leaning past the short bench seat, stretching out her arms and slowly regaining composure.

"It matters when a person clearly could use a person, especially if they're alone on a bench. Were you planning on staying here all night? Cuz I can tell you it gets cold," Faye noted in a friendly tone, bringing to attention her benchmate's light choice of wardrobe, a vibrant pink shirt and short pajama bottoms.

"Says the one in a sleeveless hoodie and gray short shorts," the girl said, a smile ekingthrough on her face. "Does... Does that even have a back?" She craned her neck to try and get a glimpse of Faye's outfit.

"Can't show this off with one!" Faye proudly proclaimed, standing up and turning her back to her new friend. As she raised her hood, black cloth edged her back, forming an oval canvas of fair skin, the disparity of colors accentuating a large tattoo; as if literally drawn in an offset white was the outline of a beautiful pair of intricate butterfly wings, seamlessly matched with her skin tone so that it almost glowed in the faint light of a nearby streetlamp.

The haughty display was met with a stifled, if a bit forced, laugh from the girl. "I also now notice that you are covered in vines..."

Faye's companion noted that in addition to the wings, the fairer haired girl's right arm and left leg were each wrapped in thorny green vines, both of which spiraled around their respective limb, decorated with sporadic fair colored flowers that matched the tone of the wings.

"I also have four butterflies and a flower on my cleavage," laughed Faye with a smirk. "Here, let me show you."

The pink haired girl watched intently, if somewhat taken aback, as a stranger sat down and showed her her left arm. On it were two butterflies, one a vibrant pink, and the other a bright blue. Before she could get a proper look at them, Faye stretched out the comparatively bare, unvined leg and revealed an identical pair of butterflies that fluttered just below her pant leg. Quickly lowering her leg, Faye followed the action up by lowering her already low neckline; as she pulled the v-neck of her hoodie downward, the pink haired girl saw a larger version of the white flowers decorating the vines on her arm and leg. It sat square in the middle of her chest, inches below her neck, a beautiful fair rose bordered by leaves complementing her even fairer skin.

Somewhat taken aback by the casual near-intimacy of the fair haired girl beside her, the pink haired girl let out a hearty laugh. Her eyes were far brighter than they had been and her attitude had improved significantly since her unknown companion had arrived. She rubbed her eyes once more.

"There it is! Glad my ink can be of service."

"Definitely what I needed, that's for sure..."

"Mind if I ask why?"

"Oh, everything," the girl breathed, leaning forward, staring at the ground.

"Helpful. Want to narrow it down, love?"

"Between homework, leaving my family behind, going to school to fight deadly monsters, dealing with three teammates of varying degrees of personality, and relationships, yeah, everything."

"Wanna talk about it? I'm not doing anything important."

The pink haired girl gazed up at the night sky, shattered moon casting a soft glow. "Not now. I just want to lay here and not exist for a bit."

"Then I'll be right here." Faye crossed her legs and laid back on the bench. The other girl mimicked her for a moment before resting her head on her bare shoulder, eyes closed.

"Thank you."

Hesitantly, Faye put an arm around the girl. Not really knowing what to do, she lightly patted her head, consciously trying to not look as if they were dating. There was not a noise nor a person to indicate anyone was nearby, but she still felt strange comforting a girl she just met, especially one that seemed vulnerable and uncharacteristically close. Regardless of her confusion, the pair sat on a bench in the middle of campus for what seemed like a long, long time. Neither made any real movement aside from shifting.

Eventually, the pink haired girl raised her head. Her face had a gentle smile, and the redness of her eyes had subsided. She made as if to say something before shivering.

"You were totally right, it's really cold."

Faye laughed, dramatically kicked her way to a standing position, then raised an eyebrow to the girl before presenting her hand.

"Then let's go. I'm sure some sleep wouldn't hurt for whatever you're dealing with."

The girl grabbed Faye's hand and was pulled up.

"Sounds good," she yawned.

The two began making their way towards the blackened hallways at a brisk pace. Faye accompanied her new friend to her room, where the pink haired girl turned to face her with a brilliant shine in her eyes.

"Thanks again. I really needed that," the girl whispered in the dark before her door.

"Never a problem. If you ever want to chat, I'm almost always wandering around out there this late. Feel free to join me."

"Tomorrow, then. Goodnight for now, though. I need a blanket and a pillow."

"Later then!" Faye waved as she watched the girl disappear into her room as a silent shadow.

Faye began strolling back to her own room, once again taking in the silence the night brought. Or, at least she would if it were silent. With her conversation partner gone, the noises of the building became more apparent. She eyed down the corridor to where the sounds of fellow late nighters were coming from.

" _And that's why I prefer walking outside. Oh, well. I could use a bit more air._ "

Faye once again returned outside and circled around a few more times before arriving at the entrance to her hall and shortly after her room. She unlocked the door, opened it as slow as feasibly possible, and withdrew inside. Locking it behind her, she turned and saw her teammate, Evan, laying in her bed, watching something on her scroll, headphones in. She waved and placed a finger over her lips, pointing towards the other side of the room. Faye nodded, then retreated into the bathroom and changed into an oversized t-shirt and pajama pants. She silently climbed into her bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking about her surprisingly eventful walk.

" _Wait, what was her name? Well, I guess that's an issue for tomorrow_."

Faye slept well that night, knowing she helped someone out.


	2. Ashley Thomas

A young woman brushed her greyish hair out of her face. She hung the loose strands over her horns, staring up as the view of the clock became uncovered. The lecture she had barely listened to was minutes away from being over, and the bell couldn't ring fast enough. It had been a long day, and the girl needed some time to herself. As long as she didn't get called on for something, everything was great.

Ashley Thomas kept as low a profile as possible, trying her best to not stand out. Her team leader, Faye, seemed to be actively engaging her teacher, so she relaxed and continued scribbling in her notebook. Attempting to decipher what she had actually ended up doodling, she managed to make out airy spirals and decided to run with it. A decent facsimile of Faye using her baton-like weapons was soon on the page in front of her, blasting through the lined pages of what would be air with bursts of wind. The transient fairy-like wings that were her Semblance fluttered off her teammate's sketchy back in perfect grace. Just as she finished adding some rudimentary shades to the sketch, the bell finally rang out, releasing her from her seat. She stood up and collected her things, grasping her backpack as she reflected on her boredom.

" _That took long enough... Finally I can check on that— uhh?_ "

Ashley turned from her desk to find herself staring at the chest of the boy that sat across from her. She knew his name was Hawthorne, he was nice to be around, and that she barely reached his shoulders. He was also that specific sort of rugged that she just so happened to think was attractive, due in part to a confident smile and playfully tousled blonde hair, plus an overall pleasant attitude and demeanor. Looking up, face reddening, she met his eyes that quickly locked with hers. Her mind raced, thinking of what he was planning on. Glancing to the side, she saw her other teammates glancing back at her, all with a questioning look. Dawn had a playful smirk, even wider than usual, seemingly aware of what was happening before her.

"Y-yes?" Ashley chastised herself for not being more confident, as she usually did.

"Ash, you mind if I ask you something?" Hawthorne's voice was calming and his presence was friendly, but the girl still took a subtle step back in response.

"Don't do it don't do it don't do it."

"Yeah?" the Faunus responded, trying to ignore the voice screaming in her head.

"Are you doing anything tomorrow? I got a card for somewhere nice and it'd be a shame to go alone."

Ashley could feel her face immediately start burning and she could only imagine what shade of red she was now sitting at. She did like the person in front of her, but that didn't do anything to stop her from forgetting her extreme shyness. She had worked together with Hawthorne on more than one occasion, and she really liked the way he talked about her spiraling ram horns and his gentle coercion of her into conversations. Her mind raced as her thoughts clouded. She nodded, or least tried to.

"...You feeling okay? I mean it's okay if you don't want to," said the somewhat confused man casually leaning on the lecture seats.

It occurred to Ashley that she hadn't said anything for several seconds, and that her nod might have been in her head. Her hands flew to her face, covering her scarlet face with a maroon scarf that stifled her voice.

"Surethanksbye," the blabbering Faunus stammered before turning and near sprinting out of the classroom. As she passed through the door at the highest speed she could manage, she saw Faye start chasing after her while Evan and Dawn caught a stunned Hawthorne. Bright red and power walking as fast as her legs could take her, she made straight for her room, slipped in, locked the door and threw herself onto her bed before curling up.

Ashley glanced at the mirror across the room. She didn't spend a second looking at it. She knew what she looked like. She had spent countless hours staring at her reflection, both for the purposes of self portraits and a reaffirmation of her own self. She was Ashley Thomas. She had long, ashen white hair that she tried to keep tied behind her head, yet it always managed to spill in front of her face in bangs. She had a pair of jet black, spiraling ram horns that ran right above her ears, both a source of internal contention and of beaming pride of her status as a Faunus. She had pale skin, a tiny nose, soft features and she liked to shadow her eyes with make up to bring out her bright yellow eyes. She had her scarf; a long, maroon piece of cloth that never left her side, along with the white glove that she similarly wore on a daily basis. Almost everyone she knew had called some variation of cute at some point, but try as they may, they could never convince her to think more of herself.

Ashley's silent retrospective was interrupted by her team leader as she opened the door. Faye stepped in, removing the black hood that she had on her uniform and sitting down next to her.

"Ash? You alive? You kinda left everyone hanging there."

"I said yes," Ashley near whispered, not looking at her partner.

"..." Her diminutive teammate drew closer and lowered herself closer.

"I think..."

"You think? That's an important thing to get across when someone asks you out. How do you think that Glasir guy feels? Did he catch that part?"

Ashley lowered her head. "His name is Hawthorne, he has an accent and he thinks my horns are cute. And I don't think he heard me. I don't think I heard me. What do I do?" She matched her face with Faye's.

"You have his number? Text him or something. Otherwise, go out there and talk to him. Evan and Dawn should be keeping him busy."

As if on cue, the shy Faunus' scroll lit up. It was from Evan.

"Well?" Faye asked, craning her head over to see the screen.

Ashley read it: "He's lost. We're lost. You say yes?"

"Well, do you want to go out with him? You seem to like him."

Ashley thought to herself for a minute. She fell back into her bed.

"What if it doesn't go well? What if he doesn't like me?" the ashen haired girl asked, drawing a pillow over her face.

Faye laughed. "Ash, you fight monsters with a chainsaw. I've seen you carve a door down and kick the halves into the face of an Alpha. You're adorable and deadly. He asked you out, so clearly he likes you. Go."

"Will you go with me?" Ashley asked, removing the pillow from her face.

"That's not usually how dates work, you know. Are you certain you can't do it alone?"

"Not the first date."

"Evan's seeing someone, isn't she? She can go with you."

The Faunus looked down at her scroll with a nervous smile. She texted her teammate back with the proposition. Several texts later, she had arranged a double date with her, Hawthorne, Evan, and whoever Evan was dating. She never did get that person's name...

The next day at 5, Ashley found herself in her favorite clothes. She had her scarf, as always. The deep red wrap covered a dark button up with the left sleeve rolled up past her elbow. Her right hand was covered by the white glove that she was a never seen without in addition to the opposite sleeve. Her two maroon belts formed an elongated X around her waist, connected by a belt buckle marked with her symbol, a happy looking ram head with horns prominently displayed. Her short black shorts were layered over off-white leggings that matched her hair and a pair of her cutest black shoes. She straightened her blouse, brushed her hair back to little avail, and glanced at Evan. She waited for a knock.

" _This is going to be fun, I know it._ "

Ashley's heart was racing, but she felt nothing short of elated.


	3. Dawn Crane

A dark haired woman walked with no sense of urgency down a hallway. As she strode, she waved, passing a few other students that casually waved back with cheery smiles. She rounded a corner and dropped into the first door on her right, stepping into an empty classroom as the handle clicked. Noticing the lack of people, she tossed her backpack onto the large wooden desk at the front of the room and fell into the seat behind it. Gently placing a large object that looked suspiciously like a cartoonish skull with a handle on the desk, she plugged in her scroll and began scrolling. Kicking her legs up onto the desk, she chose a song and leaned back with a satisfied exhale.

Dawn Crane sat in the "Unofficial Beacon Clubhouse," a spare, previously unused, and slightly-more-soundproofed-than-average classroom. Weeks prior, she went through a multi step ordeal of convincing the faculty of Beacon Academy to use a room for the purposes of band practice with the fellow members of her band, the Silent Songbirds. Due to misaligned schedules and miscellaneous obligations, Dawn often found herself lacking the talents of the other members and instead discovered that a soundproof room meant more or less free reign for speakers. Reappropriating her overly complex weapon that just so happened to function as one, Dawn enjoyed homework and leisure time accompanied by her style of music. Gradually, people began to hear assorted rock from just past the door, and suddenly the room became a hangout for the teams of Beacon.

Today, however, Dawn was alone in a classroom on a formerly quiet Friday afternoon. Glancing back at the chalkboard, she scanned the dusty black that was covered by random sayings, lewd drawings, poorly thought out rumors, and all manner of song lyrics. Some were her own, some were her favorites, and some she had been meaning to ask about once there were people around. Grabbing an eraser, a poor sketch of a poorly treated professor was lost to scuffs and replaced by bits and pieces of a song in progress accompanied by the hums of a basic tune that outlined them. Several versions later, Dawn cleanly copied the presentable lines down into a notebook marked with a songbird that she had taken from her backpack before once again clearing the board and replacing her thought process with a cute skull atop a jagged pattern.

Dawn stared at the symbol she drew. Reaching for her neck, she felt the choker around it, black and delicately circling her throat, separating her head and accompanying messy bob cut from the rest of her body. The angular pattern around her neck matched the one on the board perfectly, just as did the skull clip attached to it matched the caricature. Her symbol overlooked the room, a macabre stylization that marked the room as hers for the day.

" _Fits perfectly, if I do say so myself. Helps that I designed it, of course_..." Dawn eyed the board and some of the miscellaneous art and 'art' adorning it. " _I feel like I should make a rule not to draw so many tasteless things. I guess that's what you get for giving free reign of a communal graffiti wall to a bunch of teenagers._ " She scanned the wall and erased the significant amount of ill spirited things and tasteless drawings. " _That blonde, though; responsible for more than half of these_ ," she mused, brushing the eraser over the last crude depiction of the male anatomy.

Dawn smiled regardless of her thoughts, once again falling into the chair and turning to her homework for the day. Three hours soon passed without significant event until the sky outside became noticeably darker. Eventually she looked up from her scroll, collected her things, silenced her speaker/flail/whatever-else-it-was and departed. She trounced out of the door and began walking without direction.

" _You would think a pseudo-clubhouse would have more people in it on a Friday afternoon. Ah, well, I needed that report done anyway. I wonder if Ash has started—"_

Dawn's thoughts were interrupted when she rounded a corner and nearly walked right into another student. After collecting herself, she excitedly bounced up.

"Hi, Colton!" the dark haired girl cheerily said to her fellow band member. "What's going on?"

"I was just coming to talk to you, actually. Mikado said he's free all day tomorrow, so we can actually do some work rather than not at all," responded Colton Sabat, a lanky man with long, messy, jet black hair and an excess of necklaces, rings and tattoos that drew the eye away from his scraggly uniform and appearance. The drummer of the Silent Songbirds adjusted the red circular spectacles covering his eyes and barely etched out a grin.

"We really need to coordinate our schedules better..." laughed Dawn, playfully tapping her finger on her chin, sarcastically evoking a thinker. "I've been working on some lyrics."

Her bandmate's face lit up as he began walking past her, patting her shoulder as he moved.

"Good to hear! I gotta take care a something today, otherwise I won't be free tomorrow."

Colton rounded a corner. "Tomorrow around 2 at the clubhouse!" he yelled back with a few rhythmic knocks on the wall.

"Sounds fine with okay you're gone that's fine," Dawn trailed off as she slung her bag over her shoulder and turned, somewhat dejectedly, back towards her original direction of nowhere.

" _Finally, actual practice. I hope the club is empty tomorrow... Eh, maybe an audience wouldn't be that bad. I'll see what Mikado and Colton think. Might have to move somewhere else, though. Gah, why'd I have to go and make the one soundproof room into a hangout? Curse the school's love of alt rock!"_

Dawn laughed to herself and continued to dwell on her thoughts until she realized she had no idea what she was doing and where she was going. Unbeknownst to her, she had stumbled outside and was passing by a path littered by trees on one side and dorm rooms to the left. Taking note of this, she fell into a nearby bench and stretched her arms, craning her ears to take in the ambient noise.

" _This is where that lovely singing comes from_." Dawn glanced at the numerous windows lining the walls of Beacon, some open to the world, some closed off with the blinds drawn, waiting and hoping to hear a girl's voice ring out from one of them. " _Bluh, nothing today_... I really need to figure out who that is and see if they feel like joining. I asked around, but I never did get her name..." She got up and began wandering again. " _Then again, I guess operatic singing might not fit too well with a metal band. Still, maybe I could branch out a bit; Donnagan always said I had some serious range."_

Dawn's oldest brother was the reason she had started singing in the first place, though she imagined that he hadn't envisioned her current alignment of genre. He and her other brother, Dougal, had taught her how to project her voice, how to stand tall with pride, and how to fight the hordes of Grimm with her confusing mismatch of a weapon that she had insisted on making to act as both an instrument of destruction and as a helpful assistant for a hard rock singer. Her older brothers had originally followed old style traditions and taught her to sing soft hymns and light poetic sings, but the force that her favorite bands sung with had directed her away from such flowery tunes in favor of rock. The confused but proud looks on their faces when she first did a cover of her favorite song cemented her current career path.

Dawn smiled as she thought of how her taste in music influenced her personality and her life. " _Let's see, for one I'd be soooo bored. No hobbies. I would never have met Colton and Mikado... I wouldn't have hit it off so well with Evan... I would have never met any of the people who came to the clubhouse... Class without headphones would suck... Gah, the smallest things have the biggest influence. Lucky me I found my calling."_

Dawn's inner reflection was cut off by the fact that she had unintentionally found herself at her dorm room, unlocking her door. She walked in to see Evan and Ashley turning toward her, sitting before a game over screen on a tv.

"Looks like that went well."

"I call lag," Evan muttered.

"Didn't you say we were offline? You just jumped off a cliff," responded Ashley, confused.

"Yes. And that's why you're adorable," chuckled Evan, placing her hand on her much smaller teammate's head. "For not believing my lies."

Dawn sighed. She pulled up a chair next to her teammates and plopped down.

"So what's going on here?" Dawn asked, looking at the mess of colors on the screen.

"Are you fighting the good fight, killing all the bad guys?"

Evan's face glowed with enthusiasm as she readjusted her controller. "Okay, so 'bad guys' is totally subjective, considering that there's like, eight different factions and none are really evil."

Dawn turned her head to the side, her confusion almost audible. "Please, go on."

Evan's voice became a blur as Dawn leaned back and entertained Evan, half listening to her seemingly impossibly complicated analysis of her game while Ashley sporadically interrupted, asking about various contrivances that resulted in even more enthusiastic explanations. Three of the four members of Team FADE spent the night discussing the plot line of a game that only one of them knew anything about until Evan began sputtering from a lack of breath.

"So, in short," the weary conversation leader said between gasps of air, "I'm playing the good guys. Now, I'm going to go back to playing before my voice explodes. You're welcome to watch and engage in the deep lore."

Dawn yawned, followed shortly by Ashley.

"I got band practice tomorrow, so I'll pass for now. I'm off to bed."

Ashley nodded in agreement before falling into her bed.

"Suit yourself, Crane. I'll turn the volume down."

Dawn readied herself and closed her eyes to the sporadic, yet therapeutic clacking ofEvan's controller. She smiled, thinking of tomorrow's practice session and her brothers' influence on her life before drifting off into blackness.

" _I wonder who did the soundtrack for... Whatever Evan's game is called. Sounded great. I'm gonna have to look that up tomorrow."_


	4. Evan Jackson

" _Climbing out the back door, didn't leave a mark, no one knows it's you_ —"

"Miss Jackson!" declared a clearly irritated professor standing before a classroom.

A tall, grey haired girl clicked the pause button on her earbuds and removed one, cocking her head to the side.

"Sup?" the girl responded, face set with a cocky smile.

"For the last time, you're in class! Now, take out those headphones and pay attention."

Evan Jackson stared at her professor, annoyed. "The first few minutes of class had you telling us about the historical leaders of the White Fang, how they operated, and how they came to switch over to the violent ones we have now," she started, casually resting her face on her arm, toying with her lip piercings. Pointing to a crimson faced student with a look set permanently in anger, she continued, "Then Rubles McScaryface over there said something offensive which you spent around ten minutes talking about why he was wrong." She waved over at the man in question as she kept speaking, who just realized he was being referenced. "And then Charlie decided we needed to know how her everyday life was absolutely integral to the conversation." Evan eyed an overly saccharine looking girl caught up in her scroll with disdain. "Which snowballed into you talking about your ideas regarding the protection of Mountain Glenn that were denied, leading to why it got overrun..."

Evan's professor who's name she could never keep to memory raised his hand in protest, getting increasingly flustered.

"Ah, ah, ah," Evan interrupted, "I'm not done. Then you told us the story of how you managed to singlehandedly take on a group of six fully grown Ursa Majors. And now we're here, with... Two minutes to go," she finished as she eyed the clock. "Oh, and last time it was five." She linked her hands together and grinned as her teacher blustered.

"Well... I, uh... Hmm."

"I know the punk hair, piercings and the beanie don't really help, but please don't imply I'm not listening when Martyn has been writing one of his crappy stories the entire period."

A Faunus with impossibly unkempt, greasy red hair and matching ears looked up to face her with a genuinely hurt expression.

"YOUR LEADER IS A CHICK, HOW DO YOU CONTINUE TO WRITE TERRIBLE FEMALE CHARACTERS, LUCATEZ!?" Evan loudly proclaimed, voice filled with genuine confusion and annoyance.

"While I can now understand the fact that some people can pay attention in class with music, that's no excuse to be rude, Ms. Jackson," her professor stated, still recovering from his verbal trouncing.

"You wouldn't be saying that if you checked out that one shot..." Evan whispered, reinserting her earbud. She looked down at her tablet and all the hastily typed out notes containing the few useful bits of information from the day of classes, then to the clock at the top of it. " _And we're done in five, four, three, two_..."

"I guess we are out of time for the day. Continue working on those reports and have them ready by Friday. And it was six. I remember now," the professor trailed off as he began reminiscing, ignoring a student who was trying to get his attention.

Evan cranked up her music and burst out of her seat before her heavy steps brought her out of the classroom and into the halls, ducking out of the doorframeout of habit as she passed under it. Within a few minutes she was back at her dorm room, unlocking the door right before her teammates caught up to her.

"Must you try and make enemies on a daily basis?" chided Faye in a sing songy voice.

"Because losing out on the legendary Dream Team that is CRME is such a huge loss,"

Evan responded, shoulder checking the door open with an excess of force. "I'd rather hate enemies than friends."

"You're still angry at Martyn?" began Dawn. "Hasn't it been long enough?"

"For an inter-team building exercise, it sure made me hate ditching you guys," Evan smiled cheerily before frowning. "Group projects suck. Group projects with Martyn aren't group projects." She lifted her school jacket off before unceremoniously tossing it to her bed. "Plus his stories still suck."

"Charlie's not that bad," started Ashley, unconvincingly. "I mean, Rubicant is still kind of... Okay, yeah. Egbert's nice!" She displayed various levels of excitement directed at each name, only sounding half pleased with the last.

"Charlie would be better if she never talked, and yes, Rubicant is an angry racist troll,"

Evan continued as she replaced her uniform blouse with a sleeveless black tank top with a sunset patterned at the bottom. "Egbert has a dumb name, but he's cool I guess."

Dawn laughed. "You're too harsh. We may have to work with them one day."

"And when that day comes, you'll hear me swearing incessantly about it while the four of us solve the problem without them. Now, I got plans with a punching bag. You know where to find me." She finished changing into workout gear and left before she could be interrupted again. "Later!"

Evan tightened the wrappings around her fingers and shook out her hands. As it always did, the anticipation of hitting things was getting to her. She forcefully threw open the door to Beacon's gym and made a b-line to the punching bags, anxiously feeling the heat of violence. She glanced around at the relative emptiness around the boxing area of the room.

" _Aw, that blonde isn't here... I wanted to spar.._."

Evan tapped the closest bag with the slightest bit of dejectedness. Instantly, she felt her mood improve as the first satisfying thud impacted her knuckles. With a renewed sense of vigor, she took an offensive stance before laying into the bag.

" _Ah, well. Solo time is time well spent, too. Shame."_

Soon enough, Evan was slamming her fists into the bag, mixing in elbows and kicks as the volume in her earbuds surpassed a reasonable limit. For an hour or so, the only straightforward fighter of Team FADE assaulted the punching bag in front of her over and over again, each hit resulting in a powerful sound that rang across the gym.

" _And... BREAKDOWN!_ "

The punching bag rocked, rattling the ceiling tile it hung from as it was struck by several powerful right jabs placed within seconds of each other, each producing a deafening thud. Evan's display earned her a satisfying silence as the gym's few onlookers were caught in between looks of surprise, admiration, jealousy, fear, and arousal in at least one case. Basking in her moment, the sizable boxer removed her beanie and flourished at her incidental audience with a cheeky grin.

Taking a few deep breaths to comical cheers, Evan wiped her dripping face with a towel and decided it was there was no use practicing/demonstrating further. She walked back to her room, had a quick shower, then redressed in her seemingly trademarked hoodie, black with orange sleeves, hood and pouch, a pair of loose white pants, and her even-more-seemingly-trademarked black beanie, albeit one of many, considering she had just drenched her previous one. She reaffixed her pins to the fresh hat, adorning it with an orange button marked with a winking Jack O' Lantern face and a smaller yellow one marked with a setting sun.

"Nyuh," Evan vocalized, matching the expression her symbol was making in the mirror with a taunting smile, her tongue out, and one closed eye. " _And now for some vids_."

Climbing out of her door, Evan traced her well worn way to the library, tablet in hand and a new pair of headphones visibly thumping. Striding her way through the halls, the grey haired girl with her head held high capitalized on her height and overly proud stature and watched as less confident students cleared out of her way. Opening the library door with slightly too much force, Evan's bravado was cut by the library shushing her, to which she responded by meekly putting her palm up with an apologetic face. As she had so many times, she ducked in between loose chairs, students, and piles of books before rounding a corner and stopping abruptly, her strong demeanor fading into confusion.

" _That's my seat_." Evan looked at the scene before her. A diminutive girl with very fair yellow hair that fell over her face sat in the sizable crevice that had the perfect view of the world outside thanks to the large window placed between two of the library's bookshelves. A off white trucker hat lay next to her, matching the bomber jacket she was wearing over a pair of jeans. She was reclining against the wall, happily reading a book. " _Everyone knows that's my seat."_

Evan was a bit embarrassed by the fact that she was upset over a childish notion of her supposed right, but she had sufficient reason to call an arbitrary spot in the library hers; just about every day after her workout, Evan retired to this exact location to spend her evening either watching videos on her tablet, working on assignments, or playing games on one of many handheld consoles. She had seen people that had been sitting there get up and leave the second she turned the corner out of fear of retribution. Up until this point, her "ownership" had gone unchallenged. And yet, here she was, blankly staring at the fair haired girl before her.

" _Fuuu... What do I do? And she's really cute, too_ ," Evan thought, finding herself quickly start to blush as the girl noticed her presence and smiled at her before returning to her book. " _Dammit. Oh, well_." She called her losses and resigned herself to a nearby table before dejectedly syncing her headphones to her tablet. Every few minutes, she'd shoot a glance towards her throne's unknowing conquerer, seeing if she'd either leave or glance back.

While her mood rapidly improved as she set about catching up on a playthrough, Evan couldn't escape the fact that a pretty girl had stolen her seat and that she was too flustered to do anything but mope and stare. Her... Abrasive personality that had often gained the ires of people like the members of CRME had resulted in her assuming that it'd take a brave person to put up with her long enough to date her. It was because of this that she hadn't asked the girl to leave. She was attractive, and Evan wanted to come across as somewhat more presentable than she usually was in the hopes that she had a chance.

" _I really need to stop assuming that everyone here is gay. While I feel like the statistics are lying, not everybody plays for both teams_." Evan debated her preferences momentarily as she spied a ruggedly handsome boy with long blonde hair pass by her table, focusing on his broad chest with a grin. She looked back at the cute girl who had taken her spot, and had to hold herself back from jumping out of her seat as she saw her gathering her things. " _Wait, what did her hat say? No... Couldn't be."_ As she followed the girl's hips as she swayed away, she paused her video and reclaimed her throne.

" _And everything is as it should._.." Evan started, trailing off as she noticed something obstructing the normal view from the window. " _Be._..?" She plucked a sticky note off the glass and read it, confused by her name written in large print on it.

"To Evan- Hello!"

There was a phone number beneath the immaculately written letters, along with a winking happy face, suspiciously close to the one on her pin, tongue out and all. Evan stared at it for several seconds, unsure of what to do. After a minute with the most confused look pasted on her face, she reached into her hoodie pocket for her scroll and texted the number.

"hello?" Evan tried futilely to not unsend her message so she could capitalize it, cursing her habit of ignoring grammar. This informality felt like it would be a bad impression for whoever had reached out to her.

She waited several minutes, absentmindedly checking her mail and re-clearing her update feed for the fourth time. She was halfway through an article about a new game coming out when an energetic beep alerted her to the response.

"~Hello!" Evan assumed that that symbol indicated a sing songy voice, like Faye had a habit of doing in her texts. "How r u doing today?"

"good?" She breathed a sigh of relief that her conversation partner skipped unnecessary letters like her. "is it rude to ask who u r?"

"The girl who stole Evan's legendary seat," the response said shortly after. "And you didn't ask for it back. Why?"

"thought it'd be rude. among other reasons." Evan blushed again, remembering the girl's soft features.

"U wanna no y I was sitting there?"

"considering u left a note with my name on it..." Evan still wondered what the girl wanted. She had probably seen her around school, but she was certain she didn't have any classes with her. She felt her face get more flushed. "one assumes u wanted to catch my attention."

"Among other reasons."

"r u implying what i think ur implying?"

"It'd b hard 2 miss all ur staring." Evan started to hate her lack of subtlety. "Wanna talk tomorrow?"

"love to. I'm free after 4:30."

"~Great! I'll be where u would think I'd be."

Evan smiled, covering her face in an attempt to hide her bright red face and stifle her incessant giggling. Gradually, she wound down and returned to her video with a pleasant smile.

" _Today turned out pretty good. Wait? Dammit, I didn't ask her na— WHAT I DIDN'T KNOW YOU COULD SKIP THAT!_?" Evan lost her train of thought completely as she shot up in her seat and brought her tablet close to her face. She rewound several times and spent the rest of the evening in the library, swapping her thoughts between her videos and her future date.


End file.
